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Saturday, 30 July 2016

352) “Chennai Book Fair": (Part II): (A.K.Chettiar (03.11.1911- 10.09.1983): One of the Six Eminent Tamil Writers on whom a Special Cover was issued by Tamilnadu Postal Circle, Department of Posts, India on 10.06.2016:

352)
“Chennai Book Fair": (Part II): (A.K.Chettiar (03.11.1911- 10.09.1983): One of
the Six Eminent Tamil Writers on whom a
Special Cover was issued by Tamilnadu Postal Circle, Department of
Posts, India on 10.06.2016:

During the Chennai Book
Fair, the Tamilnadu Postal Circle released six Special Covers on six eminent
Tamil writers who have made significant contributions to Tamil Literature – A.K.Chettiar,
T.Janakiraman, P.V. Akilandam, D.Jayakanthan, Pudhumaipithan, and Va.Ramaswamy.
All six Covers bear a common special cancellation and were released at a
special function on 10.06.2016.

This
Special Cover is on A.Karuppan Chettiar (03.11.1911 – 10.09.1983):

A.K.Chettiar was a
celebrated writer of a translucent Tamil Prose Style. He is particularly well
known to the Tamil readers as a writer of travelogues. He rediscovered the long
forgotten works of the famous Tamil poet, Subramanya Bharti, long before anyone
else.

Travelogue
writer:

He is considered to be one of the most
prominent writers of modern travelogues in Tami. He collected over 140 travel essays
in Tamil during 1825-1940, which he edited and published them as a book in 1940.

He has written a total of
seventeen travel books on his own travels, of which “Ulakam Suttrum Tamilan” (meaning “The Tamilian who travels all over
the World” or “The Globe Trotting Tamil”) and “America Nattinil” (In America”) deserve special mention.

In
addition, he was also a journalist and documentary film maker.

Journalistic
contributions:

In 1930, he helped
set up the magazine “Ananda Vikatan”.

In 1931, he first
published a Tamil Magazine “Dhanavanigan”
in Burma when he was 20 years old.

From 1943, till the
time of his passing away in 1983, he edited and published the famous
monthly magazine, “Kumari Malar” from
Chennai which won all round accolades.

World
tour and learning the art of Photography:

Born in Kottaiyur in the
Madras Presidency of British India, he was interested in travelling and began a
world tour in the 1930s.

In 1935, he went to
Japan to learn photography at the Imperial College of Technology, Tokyo.

In 1937, he joined
the New York Institute of Photography where he obtained a diploma in
Photography.

During the same year
(1937), he started work on the documentary “Mahatma
Gandhi: Twentieth Century Prophet” and set up a company called “Documentary
Films Limited” and began collecting archival footage on Mahatma Gandhi.

His documentary on Mahatma
Gandhi, which he commenced working on in 1937, was another one of his many
notable achievements which was unique in many aspects, being the first
documentary on Mahatma Gandhi. He went to great lengths to collect the material
for this documentary and visited many sources in several countries, including
India, South Africa and the United Kingdom and shot many contemporary scenes of
Mahatma Gandhi.

By 1940, some three
years later, he had accumulated about 50,000 feet (or 15,000 metres) of film
footage.

On 23.08.1940, some
12,000 feet (or 3,700 metres) of film was eventually released. The documentary received wide-spread
coverage in the Indian Press and some International papers like the New York
Times.

The documentary had
voice-overs in Tamil, Hindi and was also dubbed in Telugu. After the preliminary screening, the film was banned by the British
Raj administration due to government censor-ship, for fear that it might herald
an India-wide revolution.

In 1943, Chettiar
recorded his experiences in making the documentary Mahatma Gandhi: Twentieth Century Prophet” in a series of articles in “Kumari Malar” , the magazine that he
edited and published, as well as, expressed his disappointment in the film not
reaching the masses on account of its unwarranted banning and confiscation by
the British Raj authorities.

These articles were later
printed in a book titled “Annal
Adichuvattil” (meaning “In the footsteps of the Mahatma”).

The
long lost documentary re-discovered in an abridged form:

An abridged 81 minute long
version of this long lost documentary on Mahatma Gandhi was traced in the United
States in 1998, which was a Hollywood version, of the documentary and was
found at the San Francisco State University. Also, another copy was located at
the University of Pennsylvania, which gave viewers an idea of the meticulous
work done by him.

Nevertheless,
the original Tamil, Telugu and Hindi versions remain elusive and are believed to
have been destroyed by the British Raj authorities.

An
interesting anecdote:

In 1930-31, in a dinner
hosted by President and Mrs. Hoover in Washington D.C., for all the delegates of
the International Chamber of Commerce Convention in Washington, D.C., which A.K.
Chettiar was attending along with another one of his widely travelled Tamil
colleague, when Mrs Hoover stopped at his table and upon seeing two foreigners asked
them “You speak English?”, the entire table burst into laughter and one of his
American colleagues said “Better than us and you, Mrs. Hoover”. During a brief
conversation she wanted to know whether they had studied outside India and was told that both had studied upto High
school in India and then in foreign Institutes including in the USA.

A.K.Chettiar
passed away on 10.09.1983 at the age of 72 years.

A
Special Cover released in his honour by the Tamilnadu Postal Circle, India Post
on 10.06.2016 at Chennai”

The Front of the Special Cover released to honour A.K. Chettiar

The Front of the
Special Cover released to commemorate A.K. Chettiar at the 39th
Edition of the Chennai Book Fair held from 01.06.2016 to 13.06.2016 bears his photograph,
together with his name.

Besides his photograph is the cover of his
book titled “In The Tracks of the Mahatma”.

Below the photograph are
mentioned “CHENNAI” and the date “10.06.2016”.

The Rs.5/- stamp is of 50
years of the setting up of the Border security force. The Cancellation Stamp is
titled “Tamil Writers” (in English) and “Tamil Lekhak” (in Hindi). The
Cancellation date is “10.06.2016” and is of Chennai.

On the Back of the Special
Cover is mentioned:

“A.K.Chettiar is
considered as “one of the foremost writers of modern travelogues in Tamil”. He
collected more than 140 travel essays in Tamil, edited and published them as a
book in 1940. His own travel essays were published first in 1940 as “Ulagam
sutrrum Tamilan (The Globe Trotting Tamil). His another notable achievement was
the documentary film on Mahatma Gandhi. From 1943 till the time of his death in
1983, he edited and published Kumari Malar which itself had some unique achievements.”

The Back of the Special Cover
also bears the name of the issuing authority “Chief Postmaster General, Tamil
Nadu Circle Chennai and the approval number: TN/21/2016, as well as the logo of
India Post.Also mentioned is the fact that this Special Cover has been
designed by the South India Philatelists’ Association.

About Me

I am Rajeev Prasad, a retired State Bank of India officer who had been collecting coins in a shoe box without having a serious interest. Only after quitting my job I got the time to take serious interest in developing my coin collection into a hobby. A pity, because I would have had more opportunity to lay my hands on more 'exclusive coins' while in the Bank. Anyway, as they say,better late than never. If you have any views to share with me regarding this blog , please contact me on my email rajeevprasad1208@gmail.com. I also have a twitter account @prasad_rajeev.
I had an opportunity to participate in a Documentary on the life and times of the 25 paise coin titled “Chal Basi Chavanni” (The four anna/twenty five paise coin passes away), aired by STAR NEWS on 29th and 30th June 2011. The programme helped in making many persons hold back onto their “chavannis”, the little round beauties, instead of returning them to Banks .